Electronic organ with transient speech effects



J. MARKOWITZ 3,037,413

ELECTRONIC ORGAN WITH TRANSIENT SPEECH EFFECTS June 5, 1962 Filed May 2.1960 United States Patent 3,037,413 ELECTRONIC ORGAN WITH TRANSIENTSPEECH EFFECTS Jerome Markowitz, Allentown, Pa. Filed May 2, 1960, Ser.No. 25,976 2 Claims. (Cl. 841.24)

In order to produce an electronic organ which is acceptable to the mostdescriminating organist, no factor in organ tone production can beoverlooked. The present invention concerns an important element in theelectronic production of realistic organ tone. This is the presence ofspeech transients in a given note or tone source.

One object of my invention is to provide an electronic organ whoseindividual notes have a speech transient.

Another object of this invention is to provide an instrument of the typedescribed, whose individual notes have a speech transient, with arecognizable pitch characteristic.

Another object of the invention is to provide an instrument of the typedescribed, whose individual notes will produce a speech transient bymeans of circuits which do not require additional contacts so thatnormal organ contacts and wiring can be employed.

Another object of the invention is to provide in an electronic musicalinstrument a simple and novel means for causing a single or multipletype speech transient.

Another object of the invention is to provide a speech transient of anydesired pitch, whether it be harmonically related or of a non-harmonicnature.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for providing aspeech transient which can be added to any individual note of anyelectronic organ which employs a direct current key control system.

With these and other objects in view, which Will become more readilyapparent from the following detailed description of the variouspractical and illustrative electronic organ improvements shown in theaccompanying drawings, my invention comprises the novel electronicorgan, devices, elements, features of construction and arrangement ofparts in cooperative relationship, as more particularly indicated anddefined by the hereto appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing the FIGURE is a diagrammatic or schematicillustration which portrays certain electronic tone producing and otherparts of an electronic organ arrangement having my inventionincorporated or combined therewith.

For purposes of exemplification, or illustration, my invention is hereindisclosed as embodied, in, or applied to, a standard, or conventionaltype electronic organ. However, it is to be noted that only those partsof such an organ have been shown in the drawings as are deemed necessaryto facilitate a clear understanding of the construction and operation ofmy invention, the performance of its intended purpose and the manner inwhich it achieves certain unique and desirable results and advantages.From this disclosure it will be readily apparent to those skilled inthis art how my invention can be utililized, in the same or in similarmanner, with electronic organs or the like, in general.

It will facilitate an understanding of my invention to first brieflyconsider some of the more important aspects and phases of thecomparative situation surrounding electronic organs and pipe organs, aswell as some of the known factors relative to the production of musicalsounds as involved in this situation.

In the pipe organ field, so called purists demand that a certaindistinctive type of speech be available in the individual notes of theirinstrument. They demand that at least some stops of the instrumentchiif. This word has been applied in the past as a means of describing"ice transients which occur during the initial speech period of a flueorgan pipe. The presence of such an eifect produces great articulationand this is easily discernible by most listeners.

Generally speaking, the main ingredient of such transients is theappearance, for a fraction of an instant, of a frequency or pitch whichis dilferent than that which the pipe normally speaks during its steadystate period. In some pipes the instantaneous exaggeration of a certainharmonic is the transient. In diapason pipes for instance, it can beobserved that a tone one octave higher appears before the pipe settlesdown to a steady state condition. In other types of pipes the chiifoften is a still higher harmonic. For certain special eifects it may bedesirable to have a lower than normal pitch as the chiif.

It has long been the practice in pipe organs and electronic organs toprovide what are known as couplers. Couplers, generally speaking,comprise a system of multiple electrical contacts associated with agiven key, whereby the said key can play not only the normal pitch of agiven note, but also other pitches which are harmonically related. Somemay be higher in pitch and some may be lower in pitch. In a sense, thisinvention may appear to be a system of coupling, however, it should benoted that a basic difference exists. Instead of the harmonically rerlated note being coupled to a contact on a given key so that it willspeak continuously during the entire time that the key is depressed, adesired pitch will instead be coupled through a resistance-capacitycombination whose time constant will cause it to speak only for a smallperiod of time, usually a fraction of a second. This 'will occur onlyduring the initial period of the speech of a given note.

In order to simplify an understanding of this invention couplers havebeen omitted from the description, however, it should not be construedthat the use of this invention inhibits the use of couplers. On thecontrary, the simple single contact per key for a unison pitch allowsthe use of any conventional coupler system.

The selection of which type of chiff generating system to employ dependsupon the particular type of instrument that is desired as well as theelectro-mechanical configuration which is available. One advantage ofthe chiif generation method herein described is that it may also beapplied to a harmonic synthesis type of organ. I refer specifically toan instrument in which all the tonalities are produced by a combinationof sine waves of various pitches. A division including an arrangement ofthis type may also be desirable as a portion of a more comprehensiveorgan.

As an example of how this invention operates, I am showing its use inconjunction with an electronic organ which employs transistor typeoscillators, however, it can easily be applied to any electronicinstrument which includes tone generators which require a direct currentpotential to be applied through a key and contact arrangement.

In the drawing, certain of the well known parts of an electronic organare schematically indicated. These parts generally comprise organ keys1, 2 and 3, and a series of cooperatively associated contacts 4, 5 and6. These keys and contacts represent playing means for controlling theoperations of transistor tone oscillator units 7, 8 and 9 whichrepresent 3 notes of a multi-note electronic organ. These oscillators ortone generators receive an operating potential from a battery or powersupply 10 through the aforementioned key contacts. Audio output currentsfrom these tone generators feed through isolating resistors, 11, 12 and13 to amplifier 14 and loudspeaker 15.

The tone generators 7, 8 and 9 include transistors 16, 17 and 18,inductors 19, 20 and 21 in combination with capacitors 22, 23 and 24,capacitors 25, 26 and 27 and '3 3 resistors 28, 29, 30,31, 32, 33, 34,35 and 36 to form in combination transistor versions of a Hartleyoscillator whose operation is well known to those skilled in the art.

Resistors 37, 39 and 41, and capacitors 38, 40 and 42 are delay circuitsof a common type whose function is to slow up the speech of theoscillators to approximate the speech of organ pipes. In practice lowernotes have larger capacitors and higher resistances so that the speechof upper notes is quickened and the speech of lower notes is relativelyslower.

If key 2 is depressed, contact will close allowing current from batteryto flow through diode 52 and resistors 39 and 35 into transistor 17 andits associated components which comprise tone generator 8. An audiovoltage whose frequency depends basically upon inductor 20 and capacitor23 will flow through resistor 12 into amplifier 14 and loudspeaker 15.However, when key 2 is depressed operating potential will also flowthrough diode 50 and energy storage capacitor 44 into transistor 18 andits associated oscillatory components. Current will flow throughcapacitor 44 only until it is charged. Capacitor 44 should be of suchsize that only a momentary pulse will be availaible for transistor 18and associated components. Under these conditions audio output from tonegenerator 9 will also sound through loudspeaker i but only during theperiod of initial speech of tone generator 8. Assuming that thefrequency of tone generator 8 is 256 c.p.s. (middle C) and the frequencyof tone generator 9 is 512 c.p.s. it is apparent that the chifi ortransient tone would be the octave of musical frequency middle C. Thepresence of diode of diodes 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and 54 is to prevent thekeying of unwanted notes. For instance tone generator 7 will not soundif note 2 is depressed and tone generator 8 will not sound if note 3 isdepressed. Resistors 45, 46, 47 and 48 will allow capacitors 43 and 44to discharge when keys 1 and 2 are released so that the transient effectcan be repeated. Lines 55 and 56 connect to higher and lower octaves ifavailable.

A more complex transient effect is produced when key 1 is depressed. Inthis case both tone generators 8 and 9 will chifi. Tone generator 8 willchill. because of the momentary pulse of operating potential throughdiode 49 and capacitor 44 and tone generator 9 will chifi because of thepulse which it receives through diode 54 and capacitor 44. Assuming thatthe frequency of tone generator 7 is 128 c.p.s. its chifif will be bothits octave and super octave. Additional tone generators can beinter-connected in the same fashion. It is interesting to note that, asin organ pipes, the chili will appear slightly ahead of the pitch of thebasic oscillator. This is accomplished automatically because of thequicker speech of the upper notes.

While this description shows the invention as applied to harmonicallyrelated notes, it can also be applied to non-harmonic notes. Any desirednote or notes can be -borrowed for the instantaneous transient speecheffect. Any type of direct current supply potential controlled tonegenerator can be substituted for the transistor type shown. These tonegenerators might be of the electron tube type, the electrostatic reedpick-up type, or others.

Of course, it will be apparent to those skilled in this art that thenovel electronic organ system developments specifically shown anddescribed, can be changed and modified in various ways, withoutdeparting from the invention herein disclosed and more particularlydefined by the hereto appended claims.

I claim:

1. An electronic musical instrument having a circuitry which includesindividual tone oscillators that generate notes of a musical scale; adirect current supply potential for these oscillators, key contactsconnected between these oscillators and the supply potential; an energystorage means connected between the key contact of a given oscillatorand another selected oscillator, said energy storage means includingisolating diodes.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 wherein a plurality of energystorage means are connected between the key contact of a givenoscillator and those of a plurality of other selected oscillators.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,294,178 Hanert Aug. 25, 1942 2,492,320 Riggen Dec. 27, 1949 2,906,959Peterson Sept. 29, 1959 2,939,359 Markowitz June 7, 1960

